FTX Hacker Might Be Using SBF Trial as a Distraction: Certik
Sneaky hacker moves $400M stolen from FTX during big court case, trying to secretly hide the money trail.
A tricky hacker stole a huge $400 million from FTX and FTX US, big crypto platforms, last November. Now, this sneaky person might be moving the stolen online money (called Ether) secretly while everyone is focused on a big court case involving Sam Bankman-Fried, an important man in the crypto world.
Just before this big court case started, the hacker, nicknamed "FTX Drainer," started moving millions in stolen Ether. During the last three days, this bad actor moved around $24 million to new secret online wallets.
Hugh Brooks, a security boss at CertiK, thinks the hacker might be using the huge attention on the court case to secretly move the stolen money without people noticing. This is because the court case is getting lots of news coverage, and people might not be paying attention to the hacker's movements.
FTX, once a very valuable company, went broke (bankrupt) on Nov. 11, and on that same day, its workers noticed lots of money being taken out from FTX’s online wallets. The company, panicking, moved between $400 and $500 million to a different safe place to keep it away from the hacker.
Brooks also mentioned that the hacker is being extra sneaky with moving the stolen money around. At first, they used a "peel chain" method, moving smaller amounts to new wallets constantly. But now, they're using even smarter ways to hide the moving of the stolen money, making it really hard to follow and find them.
No one knows yet who the FTX hacker is, and the hunt to find them is still going on. Investigations are still happening, trying to figure out who could make such a huge move and steal so much money.
